HARTFORD -- A Shoreline resident is expected to change her not guilty plea in connection with her role in the Women's Gifting Tables, which federal authorities have labeled an illegal pyramid scheme.

Bettejane Hopkins, of the Ivoryton section of Essex, is expected to change her plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford before Judge Alvin W. Thompson, according to Tom Carson, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, and court documents.

Hope Seeley, Hopkins' attorney, did not return a message for comment, and Carson said prosecutors could not elaborate.

Hopkins entered a not guilty plea earlier this year, along with two other alleged leaders of the Women's Gifting Table, Donna Bello and Jill Platt, both of Guilford. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations agents arrested the trio May 2 after a New Haven grand jury returned indictments, charging each with conspiracy to defraud the IRS, four counts of filing a false tax return, 12 counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

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Federal officials allege that people who participated lost $1 million.

For their alleged involvement, Bello, Hopkins and Platt face charges that each bring from three to 20 years in prison, fines of up to $250,000, years of supervisory release and assessments of $100. Each of the women was released after U.S. Magistrate Donna F. Martinez required their husbands to be their custodians.

Hopkins, Platt and Bello have appeared as a group in court twice: the day they were arrested and arraigned and then a few weeks after for a status conference. Bello appeared again in court in June after that when Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Morabito alleged that Bello spoke with a gifting table witness. Conditions of the women's release included not speaking to witnesses about aspects of the investigation and court case.

Despite the alleged transgression, Bello has remained free.

The alleged pyramid scheme has run rampant on the Shoreline and even spread to other areas; tables with their own hierarchies and members have been operating around the state simultaneously. Participation is by invitation only, and women have often been invited by trusted friends and told they would be entering a "sisterhood."

New participants entered on the bottom leg of the table, called the "appetizer" level, while those on the second peg were the "soup and salad level," and those higher were "entrees." The woman at the pyramid's top was the "dessert" level.

To join, members each contributed a $5,000 cash "gift" to the woman at the top. Once that woman received money from eight members -- giving her $40,000 total or a profit of $35,000 -- lower members would move up and eventually reach the profitable dessert level. But eventually as there are fewer recruits and therefore less money coming in, members can't move up levels and lose their initial investment, authorities say.

According to the indictment, Bello, Hopkins and Platt hosted parties, meetings and conference calls for new recruits and existing members, misrepresented the gifting tables and omitted facts. It goes on to say they told recruits the $5,000 gifts were legally considered "tax-free" and not to report the money on their tax returns.